Never been swept in New York, NY
If you have burned wood for years and the chimney has never been cleaned, there is almost certainly creosote inside the flue. Creosote is the tarry, flaky residue that wood smoke leaves behind as it cools on the way up. It builds in layers. It is flammable, so a flue coated in it is fuel sitting inside your house. Nothing has gone wrong yet, and you have time to deal with this properly. But use the fireplace as little as possible until someone has looked up the flue with a camera.
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How fast this builds depends a lot on how you burn. Unseasoned or wet wood and slow, smouldering fires lay down creosote far faster than hot, bright ones. New York works against you here too. Humid summers keep an unused flue damp, which encourages creosote odors and interior staining, and the heating season downstate runs long enough to put plenty of hours on a fireplace. Much of the city's housing predates 1940 — brick and brownstone rowhouses, masonry walk-ups, prewar buildings — and unlined or clay-tile masonry chimneys are common in that stock. An old flue with years of deposits in it is exactly the kind of chimney that needs eyes on the inside before the next cold snap.
While you wait — please don't
- Do not light another big fire until it is inspected. A heavy creosote layer can ignite from an ordinary hot fire, so keep the fireplace cold until the flue has been looked at.
- If the chimney roars or you see flames at the top, get everyone out and call 911. That is a chimney fire in progress, and it is a fire department call, not a repair call.
- Stop using the fireplace if smoke is coming into the room. Smoke pushing back into the house can mean a blockage or a damaged liner, and combustion gases include carbon monoxide — if anyone feels dizzy, sick or headachy, get outside and call 911.
- Do not try to burn it clean or scrape it yourself. Hot "cleaning" fires and homemade rods can ignite deposits or crack clay tile, and neither one tells you what condition the liner is in.
- Do not assume a sealed or converted fireplace is safe to relight. Many original New York fireplaces were sealed or converted to gas or heating-flue use, so that flue may now be serving something else entirely.
What the technician does
- Full sweep, top to bottomThe technician sweeps the whole flue from the top down through the firebox and removes the debris rather than leaving it for you.
- Camera inspection of the whole flueA camera goes up the full length so the inside is seen, not guessed at. Ask to watch the footage with them.
- Liner checked for cracks and gapsClay tile can crack and joints can open up, and a gap lets heat and gases reach places they should never touch.
- Damper, smoke shelf and firebox cleanedDeposits collect on the smoke shelf and behind the damper, which is also where draft problems tend to start.
- Cap and crown inspectedThe technician checks the cap and the crown for cracks and open mortar joints, since water getting in makes everything below it worse.
- Price before anything startsThe technician inspects the chimney, gives you the price, and you approve it before any work begins. The estimate is free.
Why this happens in New York, NY
New York's enormous stock of century-old brick and brownstone buildings means liners, parapets and mortar joints are a constant maintenance item, not a one-time fix. Freeze-thaw cycles from roughly December through March crack chimney crowns and open mortar joints, and the whole city is coastal, so salt air adds to the wear on anything exposed up top. A first sweep and camera inspection on a chimney that has never had one usually turns up more than soot — it tells you whether the crown is sound and whether the liner is intact.
Working fireplaces are concentrated in the outer boroughs — Staten Island, eastern Queens, south Brooklyn and parts of the Bronx — and we arrange sweeps and inspections across all of them, from Bay Ridge and Park Slope to Forest Hills, Riverdale and St. George. Demand spikes with the first hard freeze and the start of heating season in late fall, and again after winter nor'easters, so a chimney that has gone years without a sweep is better booked before that rush than during it.
Questions people ask
- How bad is it if it has never been swept?
- It depends entirely on how much you burned and what you burned. Years of hot, bright fires with dry wood leave less than a few seasons of smouldering fires with damp wood. The camera inspection is what settles it, and that is why the whole flue gets looked at rather than just the bottom.
- Do I need a permit for a sweep in New York City?
- Routine sweeping and inspection generally do not require a permit. Permits in New York City come from the Department of Buildings, not a state agency, and are typically needed for things like installing a stove or insert, relining a flue as part of an appliance installation, or structural masonry work above the roofline. Call the Department of Buildings before that kind of work begins.
- Which code applies here?
- Most of New York State follows the Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code, but New York City is the major exception and enforces its own NYC Construction Codes. Solid-fuel appliances and chimneys are also commonly evaluated against NFPA 211 and the appliance manufacturer's listed instructions, and the city applies additional restrictions to solid-fuel appliances.
- Is there a state chimney sweep license?
- No. New York does not issue a statewide license for chimney sweeping, inspection or masonry repair; it is handled locally. New York City requires a Home Improvement Contractor license through the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, and you can verify current requirements with that office.
- What if the inspection finds a problem?
- You will be told what was found and what it would take to fix it, with the price given before any work starts. Ask to see the camera footage and ask for the reasoning in writing so you can read it at your own pace.
- Who actually does the work?
- One Call Chimney is a referral and scheduling service. We arrange the job with independent sweeps and masons across all fifty states — we are not the contractor and we do not perform the work ourselves.
One call
One call to (866) 576-7943 gets a sweep and camera inspection scheduled for your New York chimney, and the estimate is free. The technician inspects the chimney and gives you the price first, and nothing starts until you approve it.
Something else in this area
- Water coming in
- Something living up there
- Smells of smoke or damp
- Cracked crown or crumbling brick
- Damper stuck or broken
- Liner damaged or missing
- Rebuild or new chimney
- Smoke comes back into the room
One Call Chimney arranges the visit; the technician does the work and gives you the price.